Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl
They were actually giving away free, organic, all natural food.
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
Daily Archive
July 1, 2007
Food Not Bombs
Posted by tokenhippygirl under Boston, My LiFe, Photos, Travel | Tags: activism, food not bombs, massachusettes, northampton, photography, Travel |No Comments
July 1, 2007
Sign in Northampton, MA
Posted by tokenhippygirl under Boston, My LiFe, Photos, Travel | Tags: banner, flag, massachusettes, northampton, photography, Travel |No Comments
July 1, 2007
First Common Meeting Building
Posted by tokenhippygirl under Boston, My LiFe, Photos, Travel | Tags: architecture, history, massachusettes, northampton, photography, Travel |No Comments
July 1, 2007
Quabbin Tower
Posted by tokenhippygirl under Boston, My LiFe, Photos, Travel | Tags: history, light, massachusettes, photography, quabbin tower, Travel |No Comments
July 1, 2007
Northampton and the Quabbin Reservoir
Posted by tokenhippygirl under Boston, My LiFe, Travel | Tags: massachusettes, northampton, quabbin, Travel |No Comments
We traveled off toward Western Mass. today to a small town called Northampton. We’d read about it before… smartest town in the U.S. (there are 5 Universities there) and also it’s the town that’s supposed to have the most PLUs (people like us) of any U.S. town.
After sleeping in a bit and then getting a chai at the Starbucks nearby, we jumped on I-90 West. Now, I-90 is a toll road, and for those of us from Oregon (where there are no toll roads), this sometimes can pose a problem. For one thing, they don’t always tell you how it works, and trust me, it works differently in different places. So what happens is, you’re speeding along at 65 and suddenly there are signs that say there’s a toll plaza ahead. That’s when the tension starts. You approach quickly, trying to figure out which line you need to be in… and there are different lines… one for the people with passes, a couple for people who need tickets, two or three for people who are going to pay right then and get off. It’s a bit mind boggling. And there we were, Karen and I, starting to panic saying to each other, is this the right line? How about that one? Where do we need to be? Finally… you pick one, and you hope it’s right. We pulled up to a ticket booth and a ticket popped out and I took it (I was driving). I’m sure that if, as the sign said, there was a camera photographing all who passed through, the picture of me would show a woman who had this panicked shocked confused expression. It made us both laugh. How could it not?
After the horror of the toll, we successfully navigated our way to the hamlet of Northampton, MA. And… we absolutely loved it there. Massachusetts is lovely (I just had to ask Karen how to spell Massachusetts… I wasn’t sure. I was close, but hey, like Karen said, it’s not like Mississippi, whose spelling is beaten into all elementary school kids so you never forget. It’s harder… ) It’s green, there’s a lot of water around in the form of lakes and rivers, and it’s hilly, so there’s movement to the landscape, but your view isn’t really obstructed. We also loved Northampton. For one thing it’s a university town, a major university town. There are five of them here, so take a university town you know and multiply the funkiness by five… lots of art, lots of little restaurants, no fast food joints, no mini malls, lots of great architecture, and very friendly liberal people. It was very much our kind of place. We enjoyed a lunch of Thai food, cruised around Smith College, walked around the downtown area, and then made our way toward toward Amherst, back toward Boston.
On the way, just east of Amherst, we came across the Quabbin Reservoir, so we drove in to take a look. It was gorgeous. Lovely landscape, and beautiful views. While there we found the Quabbin Tower and took quite a few photos of it and the reservoir. I’ll blog a couple of them, and have already put a few more on flickr, so check them out.
From Quabbin we drove along hwy 9 east back to Boston. It was a longer, but a much nicer drive than returning on I-90. We hit several little towns, stopping for another chai in Worchester.
Now we’re back in our room, having found our way back to it via a drive through downtown Boston. It’s 11:33 Eastern and we’re tired. Tomorrow, for Karen’s birthday, we’re driving to Plymouth Rock and then Cape Cod. Fun, fun!
